Interpreting one's life sociologically: the cases of Merton and Bourdieu

Reading one's own biography on the basis of the same criteria used to analyse other objects of study can provide a unique demonstration of the value of sociological reflection. Influential demonstrations of this, have been provided by Bourdieu and Merton, two authors who distinguished for having sociologically interpreted their own lives (two lives that were, moreover, singularly similar). The autobiographical considerations can take the form of a «personal exercise – a self-exemplifying exercise – in the sociology of scientific knowledge» (Merton), a kind of self-examination that makes use of the results of all the research conducted. «The objectivation of the subject of objectivation» (Bourdieu) is configured as an opportunity to (a) submit personal interpretation criteria to a further test, exempt from adhocness; (b) show a certain degree of coherence, not presenting one's own life as a paradoxical denial of one's own epistemological proposal; (c) reinvest one's own sociological knowledge, demonstrating its concrete consequences for the research; (d) bring to light one's own "unthought of" and, therefore, the possibility of controlling it. As such, the condition of self-reference in which sociologists operate, can be articulated by means of self-examplification, avoiding the risk of self-refutation.